This session was dedicated to Thai boxing, specifically looking at certain skills sets/techniques and "making them work"
Warm up:
Shadow boxing - we used the shadow boxing to focus on specific skills, isolating elements and then combining them all.
1) evasion (footwork and head movement)
2) jab only
3) 3 hit combos
4) constantly moving forwards (slide step, step slide, shuffle, step 45 etc)
5) defences off jab and cross
6) defences off hooks
7) 2 steps back then either pivot, L step or shuffle step
8) mix it all up against imaginary opponent
Discussed slight variation in stances if boxing (longer) and thai boxing (shorter, hips up and smaller movements)
visualise a lot in showdown boxing and use it to "spar"
Thai boxing:
Feeder always doing jab, cross, step off hook and rear round kick.
Defences:
1) long parry jab and cross, thai cover the hook, crunch the round kick and reply with a round kick
2) long parry jab and cross, Simultaneous cover hook and lead elbow hit (Driving forward), follow up with elbows.
3) Long parry jab, hard parry and salute the cross to off balance, elbow the arm and then head
4) Hard parry the jab into salute, elbow the arm and then head
We drilled these in isolation and then started to mix them up gradually adding one at a time until partner would feed the jab cross hook and rear round kick 4 times and you would use any of the defences in any order.
The key here is that the "attacker" is going to throw their combo no matter what and it puts the defender under pressure. It also shows you how "quick and direct" you need to be. e.g. we all struggled with the cross defence. however the purpose of this was to see if you can make it work, work out what is not working and the adjustments you need to make to make it work. Also to acknowledge that it might not be the most effecting technique in that situation but it may work in others in a more efficient way.
eventually we did this in a semi sparring situation 1 for 1 feed instant reply after partners defence.
It goes without saying that distance is key here.
Conditioned sparring:
why conditioned sparring?
3 reasons:
1) It isolates a technique/s so that you drill it in action
2) It helps to functionalise it - have you got distance correct, are you landing with it, are you defending accurately - you quickly notice what isn't right and so you have to adjust.
3) If forces you to think - everyone has their go to combo's, by doing this you are forced to work without your back up and to make each technique work or to think of new ways to use those techniques.
various rounds and conditions:
1) jab only
2) jab vs cross
3) jab and rear round kick only
4) jab, cross rear round kick only
(though we all ended up doing extra random stuff by accident... although if you are a certain mr Darren Black it was no accident!)
General thoughts:
I felt throughout this session I was "thinking too much"... My head is so full of footwork, combos, moving off line, driving forward, hunter not hunted, make sure hits land etc etc that I was fighting myself as much as my opponent.
It certainly highlighted to me that I have certain "favoured" responses and putting conditions on them made me have to think far harder than I should have had to. It did also highlight that each hit individually needs to be "better". For example in the Thai drill when I was feeding I was really focusing on making my hook short and land (and fight the urge to change my hook into an uppercut when I saw an early and wide hook defence!). In the sparring I felt my round kicks loose their technique and not be effective. Distancing was too far away and the bloody flinch away from everything response was coming back putting me in all sorts of rubbish balanced positions.
So the question is, how do I correct these?
Obviously, more sparring and chaos condition drills, but also the shadow boxing sparring I feel will really help to sharpen my "responses and counters"
There is also a place for pad work sparring to help build the "letting go" aspect of the striking and well as defending after throwing committed strikes. It will also help to build conditioning too. I am not sure that you need to go "all out" when hitting the pads doing this sort of pad sparring?... but it certainly allows you to work harder... maybe incorporating 10 second bursts of full all out hits then back into pad sparring?
one final thought.. the mental aspect... sparring is an opportunity to not be compliant and test yourself... again something I am working on is the "stay the fuck away from me" mentality and making sure I am playing my game and not responding to what my opponent is doing. But it is still all done with a smile on your face! ;0)
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